How do we fix our defense?

[Lupe]

I really don't understand this idea that a guard can't kill your defense. Offenses are creative nowadays, and can be very good at attacking at the point they want to.

If an offense continually manipulates switches to get a bad defensive guard as the player they're attacking, why can't that be the point that hurts the defense?

I'm not saying JV is a great rim protector, but why is it on him if he constantly has to play 1v2 in the paint because our guards let their man by and didn't help onto his man?

It's very simple really. We've seen many teams win titles with weak or average defense on the wings or in the backcourt, but not many do so with average defense in the frontcourt.

[Barolt]

Do we foul a lot? And do we allow too many 2nd chance opportunities?

We're 27th in the league in fouls/game, but that's a pretty small margin. We give up 23.2 fouls per game, the Pelicans give up 20.1/game and they're 11th.

We're middle of the pack in DRB%, so we do ok cleaning our own glass. Interestingly, the two Raptors with the biggest difference in terms of on/off court DRB% aren't big men, it's Kyle Lowry and Terrence Ross.

[Lupe]

Do we foul a lot? And do we allow too many 2nd chance opportunities?

Yes we're fouling a lot, 4th most in the league at 23.2 personal fouls per game. And we're not great on the defensive glass either, rank 20th there, but we're about middle of the pack in terms of giving up offensive boards. Good spot. I don't think these are the biggest issues, but they definitely don't help you on the defensive end.

What's scary to me is that we hardly ever turn over the ball but we are so bad defensively. That means our half-court defense is essentially trash.

[Barolt]

It's very simple really. We've seen many teams win titles with weak or average defense on the wings or in the backcourt, but not many do so with average defense in the frontcourt.

I'd argue we haven't seen many weak defenders at all on championship teams, and if any it's almost never more than 1 on the court at a time. I'm assuming you're referring to Kyrie, last year, because other than him and maybe Steph I can't think of any weak defensive guards playing on recent championship teams. Kevin Love and Dirk Nowitzki won 'chips as big men recently though, and neither of them is exactly a defensive stalwart.

[tDotted]

I was going to make a thread about this. We play so goddamn loose on the perimeter so guys are getting to the paint at will and you have to scramble just to recover. Last year this team was one of the very best at defending inside the arc (5th). Down to 25th this season..

[MixxAOR]

Thanks guys. I wonder how Raps will look in upcoming weeks. This roadtrip has been fucky

[tDotted]

We're 27th in the league in fouls/game, but that's a pretty small margin. We give up 23.2 fouls per game, the Pelicans give up 20.1/game and they're 11th.

We're middle of the pack in DRB%, so we do ok cleaning our own glass. Interestingly, the two Raptors with the biggest difference in terms of on/off court DRB% aren't big men, it's Kyle Lowry and Terrence Ross.

DRB% has dropped from last year and it's not because of Bismack. Didn't change much with him on or off the court

[Lupe]

I'd argue we haven't seen many weak defenders at all on championship teams, and if any it's almost never more than 1 on the court at a time. I'm assuming you're referring to Kyrie, last year, because other than him and maybe Steph I can't think of any weak defensive guards playing on recent championship teams. Kevin Love and Dirk Nowitzki won 'chips as big men recently though, and neither of them is exactly a defensive stalwart.

I can think of plenty who got significant minutes on title winning teams. And Kevin Love and Dirk weren't anchors for their teams and essentially stretch 4s (Dirk was obviously the superstar primary scorer of his team also).

[Barolt]

DRB% has dropped from last year and it's not because of Bismack. Didn't change much with him on or off the court

By REB Chance%, percentage of rebounds a player recovers compared to their defensive rebounding chances, our worst rebounding players are CoJo, Carroll and Lowry. Our best are Powell, Pat and Ross.

[KHD]

It's very simple really. We've seen many teams win titles with weak or average defense on the wings or in the backcourt, but not many do so with average defense in the frontcourt.

what? Kawhi/Green, Iggy/Klay, Playoff Lebron, Bruce Bowen, Marion/Stevenson/Kidd, etc.

all of these guys are miles ahead of our triumvirate of terrible perimeter D of Demar/Lowry/Carroll at the moment.

how many teams have won with weak defence at the 1, 2 and 3? because that's what we have right now, coupled with a relatively average to OK center and a rookie PF.

really, we haven't seen many teams win without good to great D in the front and backcourt.

[Barolt]

Here's my question, if there's a sample size of well over a year saying that JV with Patterson provides above average to great defense, then why are we assuming JV is a bad defender? Why isn't the issue that we're just badly using our personnel?

[KHD]

Here's my question, if there's a sample size of well over a year saying that JV with Patterson provides above average to great defense, then why are we assuming JV is a bad defender? Why isn't the issue that we're just badly using our personnel?

because #prosknowbest #respecttherecord #poundtherock

[Lupe]

It's not a popular opinion here. But I'm of the opinion that Jonas needs to go unless we're going to significantly revamp our offense. He isn't being maximized offensively as a post-up option, and as a result the inadequacies that he has when it comes to play Casey's style of defense from the center position aren't overwritten by his offensive production. The problem is you can't just be silly and swap him straight up. I just think this team would get so much better if you got a legitimate rim protecting bigman with great foot-speed and lateral quicks and any sort of remotely comparable offensive talent to JV at PF.

Either that or we need to significantly change how we play on both ends, and Casey's not really going anywhere and has a great relationship with Masai so the first option seems more feasible, especially given that even if you change him out you could just end up with a really crappy coach to replace him.

Not saying JV is a bad player at all. He's excellent on the offensive end, and ok on defense. The problem is we need better than ok in that position given our personnel and gameplan.

[MixxAOR]

Patterson off the bench needs to stop. I dont think hes that good when hes not on a floor with Lowry or Derozan so wtf?

[Lupe]

what? Kawhi/Green, Iggy/Klay, Playoff Lebron, Bruce Bowen, Marion/Stevenson/Kidd, etc.

all of these guys are miles ahead of our triumvirate of terrible perimeter D of Demar/Lowry/Carroll at the moment.

how many teams have won with weak defence at the 1, 2 and 3? because that's what we have right now, coupled with a relatively average to OK center and a rookie PF.

really, we haven't seen many teams win without good to great D in the front and backcourt.

I was only talking specifically about DeRozan. He doesn't need to be an elite or even great defender given what he does on the offensive end of the floor. You can use all those examples but a lot of those guys played with at least 1 other perimeter player who didn't play great defense: Parker, Curry, Mills, Ginobili, Barea, Ray Allen in Boston, Richard Hamilton in Detroit, etc.